The goal of the Boston University School of Dental Medicine (BUSDM) Training Program in Oral Biology and Oral Medicine is to provide advanced education and training to dentists and qualified pre-doctoral candidates. The programs offered in BUSDM prepare candidates to become independent investigators and should provide the foundation for a research and academic career in Oral Medicine. The proposal represents a continuation of the Postdoctoral Training Program in Oral Biology currently in its tenth year of funding through the Institutional National Research Service Award. Our program, leading to a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) or a Ph.D. in Oral Biology, is uniquely geared to candidates with interests in the area of oral and craniofacial medicine. Considerable strength of our program stems from the high quality of ongoing research and the scope and breadth of didactic courses, as well as from the commitment of BUSDM to build centers of excellence in science. The scope and depth of our postdoctoral education and training programs has been expanded on several levels. The Division of Oral Biology at BUSDM is offering now two basic science curricula for postdoctoral education in Oral Biology and Medicine. The D.Sc. degree in Oral Biology requires a minimum of three years and is administered by BUSDM, while the Ph.D. degree in Oral Biology is administered by the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences of the Medical School and requires four to fie years for completion. The Ph.D. degree is also offered to predoctoral candidates with a bachelor or equivalent degree. Furthermore, our D.Sc. program now also offers a track for dentists interested in clinical and translational research. For the next five years support is requested for 2 D.S.c trainees, 3 postdoctoral Ph.D. trainees and 4 predoctoral trainees. The academic and physical resources for both degree programs are excellent. The Division of Oral Biology includes 9 faculty members covering a broad area of NIDCR supported research in this field. In addition, trainees profit from the large faculty resources of the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences of the Medical School. The research facilities of the Division of Oral Biology are state-of-the art and are housed in a modern research building, the Center of Advanced Biomedical Research. Overall this provides an excellent environment for the development of candidates into well-trained scientists.